Curiosities of the Solar System

A Visual Tale of Serendipity

Abstract

This visual story takes a general audience to appreciate the extraordinary fortune of finding life in the universe. For a more immersive experience, try reading in Morgan Freeman’s voice.

Is Earth a planet?

Our planet is such a big place, isn’t it?

Well, it depends on what it is compared to. Technically, Earth is considered a dwarf-planet, not a planet.

Solar System Sketch. Inspired by (Dobilas 2020).

Everything around us is huge!

The Sun’s diameter is so large (1,392,700km) that has been reduced by 7 times for it to fit in your screen!

The Solar System is so big that kilometers are not very useful anymore. For the rest of our journey, we will be measuring distances with help of the speed of light (aprox 300.000 km/s)

0    3.218894e-07
1    6.015273e-07
2    8.316865e-07
3    1.267544e-06
4    4.327994e-06
5    7.961063e-06
6    1.593880e-05
7    2.510070e-05
Name: Distance from Sun (10^6 km), dtype: float64

Earth is a comfortable place (temps, year length, distances)

Size and composition of planets depending on distance (size, composition, gravity pull)

Comparison Other goldilocks discovered (distances, temps too cold / hot)

(Lunar and Institute 2003)

References

Dobilas, Saul. 2020. “How to Create a 3D Model of the Solar System Using Plotly in Python.” Python in Plain English. https://python.plainenglish.io/how-to-create-a-3d-model-of-the-solar-system-with-plotly-in-python-2a74e672b771.

Lunar, and Planetary Institute. 2003. “Solar System Sizes.” NASA. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/686/solar-system-sizes.